6. Volunteer.

Last month, I signed up as a volunteer with Carolina Boxer Rescue. We adopted Lacy from them in 2006, and I had been wanting to find a way to help out. Someday I hope to foster for them, but in the meantime, I will be helping with rescue transports and home visits. Today I helped drive Brutus to his new foster home.

He was a sweetie and slept most of the ride in the car. We got to hang out together for about fifteen minutes in Benson while we waited for the next transport driver to arrive. Here is a picture of him sniffing around:

I am looking forward to more opportunities to help out!

March 2011 Progress

Completed in March: 5/101
Current Total: 38/101

5. Read 101 books (88/101).
I read 2 books this month, bringing my total to 88.

I crossed off 5 things this month! I hope I can keep up that momentum! :)

60. Start eating more sustainably.

I mentioned last year that I was waiting to cross this one off until we had joined a local produce CSA, and this week we received our first box from Backyard Produce. Now, remind me to photograph our box again in a month or so when it is filled with fresh strawberries and other summer goodies! This week, we requested salad mix, collard greens, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes and a few other items. This is local, organic produce grown here in NC and delivered to our door. We are so excited about it!




Liam and I couldn't wait to slice into a fresh tomato. He ate almost the whole tomato himself!

So, prior to joining Backyard Produce, we had been doing our best to improve our eating habits where we can. We made many trips to the farmer's market last year to buy local produce, but it's a solid 30 minute drive for us, so this will be so much more convenient! We buy all of our meat, dairy and eggs at Whole Foods, which is mostly local, and the beef is all grass-fed, which is much more sustainable (and healthy) than corn-fed beef.

Someday, I'd love to join a meat CSA, but this is not practical for our budget right now. For now, I am very happy and satisfied with our efforts. Yay!

1 year to go!

*gulp*

I am SO far behind! I have crossed off a few things this month, and have a few more in the works, but I have a lot of catching up to do. I'd say that Carolina Boxer Rescue will probably be receiving a sizable donation from me on March 28, 2012 LOL! Oh well, it's all for a good cause, right? :)

Number 100 on my next 101 list will be "finish more tasks than I did on my first 101 list!"

Pressure's on now - I'd like to make it to at least 75!

92. Introduce Liam to Gloria.

So, I wasn't sure at first whether to cross this one off, since I had envisioned a face to face introduction when I created the list, but I won't get that chance again before this 101 list expires, and I think that Skype technically counts just fine. When I start my next 101 list, I'll add "introduce Liam to Gloria in person!" :)

You may know I'm a big fan of Gloria Estefan, have been since high school. I'm part of this amazing group of fans called Conga Online, and Bill, Liam and I recently traveled to Miami for Conga Bash 2011. This was our 6th Conga Bash (my 5th, I missed the last one when Liam was an infant). Gloria had attended every previous bash, and I had really hoped she would continue the tradition so that I could introduce her to Liam. I was just a college student when I first met her, and she was around when Bill and I got engaged (she actually knew about our engagement before our own parents!), and after we were married, so it would really mean a lot to me to introduce Liam to her.

Well, she was not able to attend this year...however, she did join us via Skype during our EEI tour from her family ski vacation out in Colorado. We were in a conference room with her on the projection screen at the front. Bill, Liam and I were at the front of the room, so I put him up on the end of the conference table so that he could see. He was very excited to see Gloria, and had even brought along his favorite Noelle book for her to sign if he got the chance. As soon as she saw him on the table, she was like "Oh hi!" and started talking to him. He Skypes with my mom at home, so he understood what was going on, and was very excited to chat with Gloria for a minute. Susan got this photo of Liam chatting with Gloria:

Later on, as Gloria was still talking, Liam started getting bored and said very loudly "I want to go back to the hotel now!", interrupting Gloria (and embarrassing me!). She was like "what?" so I put him back on the table where she could see him, and she spoke to him again and offered him candy (not cool Gloria, since no one actually had any LOL!).

While I was not able to get myself on screen to tell her whose little boy she was talking to at the time (I was too far off to the side), I did get a chance to pass along the message later on, and received a message back from her, so I think that counts as introducing Liam to Gloria! :)

51. Spend an entire day without turning on the laptop / no internet.

This weekend I actually went 48 hours with no internet or computer while we were on our girl's weekend in Charleston. It was so relaxing to be unplugged from the world while we were away. I could never do it at home, but on vacation I really enjoy it. I'm going to make it a point to take at least one vacation a year where I don't bring the laptop.

14. Try 5 new foods (5/5).

While we were visiting Charleston this weekend, I noticed that all the restaurants seemed to feature "She Crab Soup" on their menus. It sounded interesting, so I decided to try it since it is a local specialty. It was good. Crab is not one of my favorite types of seafood, but I enjoyed the soup.

74. Visit 5 places in the NC region I've never been to before (5/5).

This weekend, I visited Charleston, SC, with my book club friends. It was such an awesome trip, and I got to visit another place in the NC region I hadn't been to before. Charleston was beautiful - I only wish we had been able to stay longer.

February 2011 Progress

Completed in February: 1/101
Current Total: 33/101

5. Read 101 books (86/101).
I read 1 book this month, bringing my total to 86.

55. Go on a picnic.

This morning, we had a playdate with some friends at the RDU Observation Park. After playing for a while, we had a picnic lunch. Liam was so excited for our picnic, and must have asked me 100 times this morning if it was time for the picnic yet. We will definitely be having more picnics now that the weather is nice again!

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (7/30).

Liam and I had a blast making valentines for his friends this year. We bought some cheap puppy and kitten valentines in a box, some pink cardstock, and a few sheets of fun stickers. We cut the cardstock into 4x6 pieces, and glued a puppy/kitten valentine to the front of each. Then Liam decorated the back of each card with stickers and crayons. We spent several hours making them, and he had a blast.


Valentines in the making. The only part of the process Liam did not enjoy was when I pulled out the camera LOL!


Front of the valentines. Liam's teacher sent home little pictures of all the kids that we put on the front so that they could help pass out their valentines in class - such a great idea!


Valentines backs. This is only about half of the valentines we made. These were the ones for his preschool class and teachers. We made 12 more for his playgroup friends!

So much fun!

January 2011 Progress

Completed in January: 0/101
Current Total: 32/101

I am sooo far behind - I've got to step it up! I do have a number of things in the works over the next few months, but I'm still way behind.

5. Read 101 books (85/101).
I read 5 books this month, bringing my total to 85.

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (6/30).
We did 2 crafty projects with Liam in January. Nothing fridge-worthy, but they were both fun. First, we just gave Liam a big cardboard box leftover from Christmas and some paint and let him go wild. He had SO much fun. It was a big mess, but worth it as a fun way to pass a winter afternoon.






Then, we tried to recreate these hole punch snowflakes. We suck. Liam had trouble using the hole punch, and our snowflake skills are sub-par, at best. But, he enjoyed it anyway LOL! He did cut out most of the slits in the snowflakes himself. He LOVES using scissors, I guess it's time to look into a kid's pair!

December 2010 Total

Completed in December: 1/101
Current Total: 32/101

5. Read 101 books (80/101).
I read 3 books this month, bringing my total to 80.

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (4/30).

Liam and I decided to try our hand at some handmade ornaments this year. We made two kinds. One, I bought clear plastic balls that we decorated with glitter glue on the outside, then filled some with shredded wrapping paper and the others with glitter. The other kind was pipe cleaners strung with beads and jingle bells. They were nothing special, even the ones I made looked like they were done by a 2 year old :) but we both had a lot of fun making them!

Love how Thomas snuck in on this photo! I bent most of the pipe cleaners, but Liam strung almost all of the beads and bells. The blue one front and center he made completely by himself, I never touched it.

53. Bake cookies from scratch.

I actually completed this one twice, since I had two cookie exchanges recently. For the first exchange, I made peanut butter blossoms, which as you can kind of tell in the photo, the cookie part was dry and kept breaking. Not sure what I did wrong.


For the second exchange, I had to bake 6 dozen cookies, and I must have made them a little small because it ended up being over 7 dozen! I made chocolate mint cookies. This is only half of them (you can see more baking in the oven):



These turned out well, especially considering that my assistant's motto is "I eat dough!" :)